 He writes that this was the first time he had succeeded at anything, and he came to see football as his way out of poverty.He played in goal, which he wrote suited the loner in him and gave him a sense of living on the edge between hero and villain.After failing his 11-plus exam in 1963, he was sent to the city's Crown Hills Secondary Modern (rather than the local grammar school), where he was given a trial for the Leicester Boys Under-14 team.